Vol. 18 No. 2
Fall/Winter 2023-2024
Control’s associated meanings are provocative in their extremes — control can provide relief or anxiety; navigating control is necessary for accessing resources; establishing control is about power and its potential problematics. For a craftsperson, variations on control are necessary for the alchemical processes involved in making. And the meanings and uses of an object — or text — can extend beyond the control of its maker or author.
For this issue of Studio, we wanted to examine control, and how power intersects with craft and its audiences and communities. How is control exerted through different mechanisms and structures? And in turn, how do makers and artists make and take control?
Marisol D’Andrea takes a critical look at control as it relates to funding and how craftspeople and makers can navigate the subjective powers at play. In Canada, grants from all three levels of government — municipal, provincial and federal — can help support creative careers, but the system’s inbuilt subjectivity can place some artists at a greater disadvantage. Understanding how funding processes work can help makers and artists access the money available to them.
Control also lies in the meanings that we assign to objects. The Ottawa-based weaver Carl Stewart works with discarded materials; Victoria Solan reviews Carl Stewart’s political textiles and their emotional resonances.
“If the crafted object has power,” writes Michael Prokopow, “it is a power that resonates with the viscerality of emotions as opposed to encouraging rational appreciation.” Prokopow’s essay explores the power that objects have, and how that is reflected in how we privilege the handmade — through the values we assign to its labour and material — as a response to industrialization and mass production.
We’re incredibly excited to feature work from the 2022 exhibition Wabanaki Modern, which documented and celebrated the Atlantic Indigenous collective whose sophisticated and contemporary work celebrated their Mi’kmaw heritage.
Sarah Edo, curator-in-residence at the Gardiner Museum, interviews Kosisochukwu Nnebe about how trickster mythologies, childhood and migration inform her socially charged work on Blackness and memory. Their conversation surveyed Nnebe’s influences, as she draws on her ancestral connections for inspiration and power.
The artist Elda “Bun” Smith revived Mohawk pottery traditions by learning from pottery shards she collected. Through the stories of Santhony Pottery, located on the Six Nations of the Grand River Territories and owned and operated by Smith’s nieces, curator Matthew Ryan Smith writes about the entanglements of history and making.
Vancouver-based architect and sculptor Marie Khouri relies on shaping both form and movement to affect the nature of space itself. Inspired by her multiple geographies, Khouri’s public art draws from collective histories to transform the built environment. Designed to bring people together, her public sculptures invite connections, something of great importance to the artist herself.
We’re also proud to feature poetry by interdisciplinary artist Erika DeFreitas, whose versatile practice includes textiles, photography and performance. Ceramicist and academic Zimra Beiner responds to our questions about his artistic and academic career paths.
Nehal El-Hadi Editor-In-Chief
CONTENTS:
Editor’s Note
FOCAL POINT MARIE KHOURI
Nehal El-Hadi writes about how the architect and artist’s dynamic sculptures interrupt space, inviting viewers to connect with each other. read excerpt
SOPHISTICATED TRADITIONS
Artwork from Wabanaki Modern, with commentary from the exhibition’s curator, Emma Hassencahl-Perley.
TRICKSTER ETHICS
Curator and writer Sarah Edo interviews Kosisochukwu Nnebe on ancestral knowledge and Black life. read excerpt
INTIMATE THREADS
Writer Victoria Solan follows the threads of Carl Stewart’s art made from discard. read excerpt
PROVOCATION ARTS FUNDING IN CANADA
Scholar and artist Marisol D’Andrea writes about her research on the grants system in Canada.
POWER IN THE MAKING
Craft historian, academic and author Michael Prokopow examines the power of the handmade. read
EACH POT TELLS A STORY
Writer Matthew Ryan Smith writes about the revival of Mohawk pottery through the story of Santhony Pottery, on Six Nations of the Grand River. read excerpt
POETRY
Excerpts from Erika DeFreitas’ artist book, It is now here that I have gathered and measured yes.
PORTFOLIO
Jean-Sébastien Gauthier (Saskatoon, Sask.)
Stina Baudin (Montréal, Que.)
Cathie Harper (Yellowknife, N.W.T.)
INQUIRIES ZIMRA BEINER
The ceramics professor talks about his approach to teaching and making, and balancing it all while parenting. read
